Page 54 - The national curriculum in England - Framework document

English

Vowel Rules and guidance Example words
digraphs and (non-statutory) (non-statutory)
trigraphs

oo (/u:/) Very few words end with the food, pool, moon, zoo, soon
letters oo, although the few that
do are often words that primary
children in year 1 will encounter,
for example, zoo

oo (/ʊ/) book, took, foot, wood, good

oa The digraph oa is very rare at the boat, coat, road, coach, goal
end of an English word.

oe toe, goes
ou The only common English word out, about, mouth, around,

ending in ou is you. sound

ow (/aʊ/) Both the /u:/ and /ju:/ (‘oo’ and now, how, brown, down, town
ow (/əʊ/) ‘yoo’) sounds can be spelt as u–e, own, blow, snow, grow, show
ue ue and ew. If words end in the blue, clue, true, rescue, Tuesday

ew /oo/ sound, ue and ew are more new, few, grew, flew, drew, threw
common spellings than oo.

ie (/aɪ/) lie, tie, pie, cried, tried, dried

ie (/i:/) chief, field, thief
igh high, night, light, bright, right

or for, short, born, horse, morning

ore more, score, before, wore, shore

aw saw, draw, yawn, crawl

au author, August, dinosaur,
astronaut

air air, fair, pair, hair, chair

ear dear, hear, beard, near, year

ear (/ɛə/) bear, pear, wear

are (/ɛə/) bare, dare, care, share, scared

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